What a fantastic day it was?….

As part of the DVLP’s woodland engagement programme the team are working closely with skilled woodland ecologists from Haycock and Jay Associates to explore and engage the local community with 5 priority woodlands within our project area.

We were fortunate to be joined by local resident and community custodian Melvyn Mills, along with his fantastic group of volunteers and forest recruits (the children) on behalf of Oak Forest School, Wilderness Skills & Survival Academy based in the heart of Howell Woods, Doncaster.

For those who aren’t sure what a Bioblitz is?

A BioBlitz is a 24-hour event in which teams of volunteer scientists, families, students, teachers, and other community members work together to find and identify as many species of plants, animals, microbes, fungi, and other organisms as possible.

Obviously we didn’t camp the night but we did have a FULL day of exciting activities and recording sessions throughout. These included butterflies, pond dipping, fungus, plants, bird song and many others.

(Activities on offer throughout the day)

Collecting all this fantastic data really helps to give us a picture of the sites wider value to biodiversity and how best organisations can manage and retain such important features for the future, to protect and safeguard important plants, animals and habitats.

We had a fantastic turn out with over 20 young explorers and a fab core team of staff, parents and volunteers on hand to help support the variety of activities on offer. It was even better to have such a passionate and dedicated audience throughout who really care about the future and value of this beautiful community woodland.

(Start of the day, Roseanna from the DVLP team introducing her fantastic volunteers and naturalists)

We are yet to total up are finds but I expect we have recorded around 300-500 species throughout the day, including a variety of invertebrates and plants. These records will then be used to help produce a new management plan for the site and be sent to the local wildlife recording database.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who was involved in making the day such a success!

Below are a few highlights form throughout the day and to give you a flavor of the days itinerary.

(Children and volunteers along the fire break, recording the wildflowers and sweep netting in the sunshine)

(Discovery Table at base camp)

 

(Young explorers in the field)

(A large hornet discovered feasting on a wasp)

(Pond dipping down at the brook)